Give It A Go 08: Last Few Days

Hey everyone, sorry this is later than I’d intended.

Anyway, back to Give It A Go 08!

The last event that I went to was the Detox Night that was held in the Atrium on Friday night and after two weeks of covering the events, I was really looking forward to it!!!

The evening wasn’t set out in a rigid format like I’d expected and this helped with the relaxation. As I walked in I recieved my free smoothie, there was two on offer; strawberry and banana or mixed berry and then went quickly over to the chocolate fountain, which was pure temptation! There was bananas, doughnuts, marshmallows and strawberries, amongst other things, all waiting to be smothered in warm, runny chocolate!!!

Other things on offer included Eddie Burgess, who took the Indian Head Massage class on Wednesday offering a one to one treatment of either Indian Head Massage or Reflexology for £2 for a 15 minute session, which was great value and the Virgin Vie girls were there giving people the chance to try their products and take part in competitions to win products.

The atmosphere was really chilled and the way everyone was free to do what they wanted when they wanted was great, so if you missed it, you really missed out.

As for Saturday, well there was a Paintballing trip, which I’m sure turned out great (though was probably very painful) and there was also a White Water Rafting trip, which first year Journalism student, Chloe Duckett has written a review on.

After a three hour journey getting lost in the Valleys of Wales, we finally arrived at our destination; Canolfan Tryweryn, the National Whitewater Centre.

 
We were split into two groups and assigned to a raft and an instructor. Next we were fitted in some rather fetching wet suits, boots, jackets and helmets, however these were all freezing cold so putting them on was horrible!

Once fitted, we made our way outside in the pouring rain to have a quick safety talk and to be explained of the instructions and commands. Some of the commands involved ‘get down’ and ‘all forward’.

We then had to lift the very heavy raft onto the back of a trailer, get into a mini bus which then took us to the top of the river.

Our raft was thrown into the water and then the white water rafting experiencing began, we met our first rapid named the ‘Graveyard’. This rapid seemed passable when we first entered, however we soon began to realise why it was called the ‘Graveyard’. It was an exhilarating drop into a fast flowing mountain of water.

We next met the rapid known as ‘Ski-slope’ which I personally think was the best out of the three, it seemed to never end until you hit a drop and was given face full of river water.

The final rapid to end the course was ‘Miss Davies’ bridge’, this rapid was in full front view of the café and therefore many watched. It was extremely bumpy with the raft all over the place and ending up pushed to the side, however it was extremely fun!

We then had a second attempt down the course, but this time we swapped positions on the raft and even tried to tackle the rapids backwards and sideward.

It was an extremely good day and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, the only fault I had was the bus driver and his crazy driving!!!!

Thanks to Chloe for that, think I missed out on a great trip there.

The final event for this year’s Give It A Go was a trip to Blackpool Illuminations. Now I didn’t go this year, but I did go last year and it was fantastic!!! There is a reason why they call Blackpool the Las Vegas of Britain because it’s amazing, but the lights are the best part of it.

For more info go to: http://www.visitblackpool.com/blackpool-illuminations.

And that’s it. I’ve still got to pop up the pictures and interview, which I’ll work on tonight and hopefully have up by the end of tomorrow, but apart from that it’s goodbye from me.

x

Give It A Go: Day Six

Right then, well I hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage of GIAG’s first week, I’ve certainly enjoyed covering it.

Unfortunately, I won’t be specifically covering anything this weekend because I really need to catch up with uni work and sort out my pages for Pluto, but never fear, here is a quick guide to the weekend’s events!

This morning saw a coach load of excited UCLan students going off for the weekend to take part in the Bear Grylls Survival Weekend. The group are travelling to the Llyen Peninsula in North Wales where they will be learning how to look after themselves in the wild, setting up shelters, finding food and cooking for themselves.

The menu is set to include mackerel, spider crabs and possibly even rabbit, so lessons in catching, killing and cooking your food will be included!

The other trip that left UCLan this morning was on its way to Chester Zoo! I have to admit I love that place, it’s not far from where I live and it is the UK’s number one zoo.

They have over 7000 animals and 400 different species, so it’s no wonder more than a million people visit every year. They also do a lot of conservation work and house some of the most endangered species we have on the planet.

For those that are visiting today or have done in the past, you will know what a fantastic place it is and a great day out that you will remember for a very long time and for those that have never been, don’t worry that you missed the trip this time, it isn’t far away from Preston (about an hour in the car) and the prices aren’t that bad either (£13.50 with a valid NUS card).

Chester Zoo is also in need of people to make donations so they can continue their great work. Take a look at the website: http://www.chesterzoo.org.

And for those of you who have stayed in Preston this weekend, don’t miss out on the two great events taking place at the uni today.

In about five minutes the Rounders Tournament, BBQ and Football is due to kick off at Source so get on down there and Give It A Go and tonight sees the return of the Roller Disco at 53 Degrees!

This was a huge success last time when it involved a trip to the roller disco place in Manchester, but due to the massive number of people who wanted to go, it has since been brought to 53 and this year sees its return as part of Fresher’s Week and GIAG 08.

Falling over, leg warmers, bad skating and neon skirts are a must at this 80s cult night and I hope those of you who go don’t have too many bruises in the morning.

And if you do take part in any of these events, drop me a line at pfeatures@uclan.ac.uk and I’ll pop your pics, reviews, comments and interviews up on the blog!

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back later this evening with all the details about tomorrow’s events!

Take care,

Em. x